iLlBRARYOFCONrTRESS.f 



I UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. | 



RECONSTRUCTION-TIIE PRESIDENT AND CONGRESS. 



UO 



SPEECH 



HON. SIDNEY PERHAM, OF MAINE, 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, APRIL 21, 18GG. 



The House, as in Committee of the Whole on tho 
state of tho Union, having under consideration tho 
President's annual mossasc — 

Mr. PE REAM said: 

Mr. Speaker: During four long and bloody 
years the people oi'this country Iiavo struggled 
for national life and tlic vindication of tlio im- 
perishable truths of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence. Nearly half a million of newly made 
graves, the lamentations of mourning mothers, 
widows, and orphans, the presence of maimed 
and battle-scarred soldiers in the streets, and 
a debt of enormous proportions attest to the 
fierceness of the conliict. But thanks to our 
noble officers and men who, in the hour of dan- 
ger, left the endearments of home and kindred, 
and, baring their breasts to the storm of battle, 
triumphantly bore our ilag on a thousand battle- 
fields, until the weapons of treason were shat- 
tered in the hands of their supporters, and the 
supremacy of the national authority established 
throughout our entire jurisdiction. A grateful 
nation will do honor to its living heroes, and 
the people will make pilgrimages of love and 
aifoction to the graves of the slain. 

The old ship, of state which our fathers, 
eighty years ago, built according to the best 
model of that day, and freighted with the fond- 
est hopes of the world, has recently encoun- 
tered a tcrril)le storm. During its severe trial 
it has braved the winds and billows, at times 
appearing almost ingulfed in the angry surges, 
then proudly rising in her majesty, the admi- 
ration of her friends and the envy of her ene- 
mies, she outrode the storm and anchored in 
the peaceful waters. All this unparalleled trial 
could but reveal whatever defect existed in the 
material or construction. Some timbers have 
been parted, some holes in the bottom and 
sides have been made, into which the waters 
have for some time been rushing, requiring a 
portion 'of the crew constantly at the pumps. 
'J'hese holes must be stopped up ; some slight 
repairs to the old ship must be made for her 
own safety and that of the passengers and crew. 
We have also exchanged a portion of the freight 
for an increased number of passengers in the 
shape of citizens of African descent. Some 
portion of the vessel heretofore used for the 
storage of freight must now be appropriated 
for the accommodation of these additional pas- 
sengers. Their comfort and well-being must 
bi; provided for. They cannot be disposed of 
as you would store away bags and barrels and 
boxes. Such reconstruction must take place 
as will best secure the rights, comfort, happi- 
ness, and harmony of all on board. And it is 
absurd to object to these necessary and indis- 



pensable changes in the fear that the old ship 
might not be recognized. 

We have been sent here by our constituents, 
charged with the important duty of reconstruct- 
ing this Union in accordance with the enlight- 
ened and progressive spirit of the age, and on 
the l)asis of comj>lete and impartial justice. 
They bid us ask nothing more, and charge us, 
by all the sacredness of our obligations, to 
accept nothing less. They send us here with 
no vindictive spirit. The horrors of Fort Pil- 
low and Andersonville have inspired no feel- 
ings of revenge. They justly feel themselves 
masters of the situation, and will not stoop to 
exult over a fallen foe. While they demand 
that ''treason shall be made odious," and that 
ample guarantees shall be given against the 
recurrence of another rebellion, they are will- 
ing to accept the least possible amount of pun- 
ishment and concession that will secure these 
results. In this spirit I address myself to the 
discussion of the important questions arising 
from the present condition of the States recently 
in rebellion, and whether they are in a suitable 
condition to be entitled to representation in 
Congress and intrusted with all the rights and 
powers of loyal States. 

Much has been said and written upon this 
subject, and the theories are about as numer- 
ous as the people who advocate them. But, 
for dkw purpose, it is of but little importance 
whether we regard these States as dead, accord- 
ing to the theory of some members of Congress, 
or their functions suspended, as the President 
declares. In any view of this suljject these 
great practical facts remain. In that portion 
of the South recently in rebellion there is ter- 
ritory, limited and defined by State lines, within 
the jurisdiction and subject to the control of the 
United States. And there are people, citizens 
of the United States and owing allegiance there- 
to, but without State governments and witiiout 
any power of themselves to create them. The- 
orize as we may on this subject, this is the com- 
mon ground to which we must all come. 

The President recognized this principle when 
he prescribed the manner in which these States 
are to be reorganized. If they are States in the 
Union now that the militarypowcr of the rebel- 
lion has been destroyed, entitled to the rights 
of loyal States, by what authority has the Pres- 
ident exercised, practically, their judicial, ex- 
ecutive, and legislative powers? By what au- 
thority has he apjiolnted provisional governors, 
authorized conventions to form constitutions, 
prescribed the qualifications of voters for dele- 
gates to such conventions, and declared what 
the constitutions when formed should be, and 



ft? 



exercised numerous other powers which he 
could not exercise in the loyal States? 

Finding these States, then, at the close of the 
war without State governments and without 
jiower of themselves to create governments, it 
becomes our duty, in accordance with that pro- 
vision of the Constitution which makes it the 
duty of ' ' the United States to guaranty to every 
State in this Union a republican form of 
government," to provide for the establishment 
of State governments that shall correspond 
with the spirit of this and the other provisions 
of the Constitution, and to guaranty in the 
strongest possible manner the perpetuity of 
such form of government. This is just what 
we have been trying to do for the last five years, 
but with partial success. 

It is the duty of the United States, not only 
to see that new States to be admitted have such 
governments, but to "guaranty a republican 
form of government" in the old States as well. 
It makes no difference whether the rebellious 
States are dead or living ; the duty of the Uni- 
ted States is the same. It is just as much our 
duty to see that the government of a State con- 
tinues republican in form as to require it as a 
condition of admission. Now, what is a "re- 
publican form of government?" It is one in 
which the republican principle is fully recog- 
nized ; in the common acceptation of the term, it 
is a government by the people, one in which the 
rights of all the citizens are equally respected. 
Can we guaranty a republican form of govern- 
ment in the States recently in rebellion by pur- 
suing the policy heretofore adopted ? The Pres- 
ident, on his accession to the Presidency, with 
the best of intentions, as we are bound to be- 
lieve, inaugurated a policy which he declared 
to be an exj^eriment, to be modified or aban- 
doned whenever it should become necessary. 
He has been more than generous toward the 
late rebels, pardoning them, restoring to fnem 
their property, giving them in many instances 
the entire control of new State governments, 
doing everything that it is possible for man to 
do, in the way of kindness, to gain their con- 
fidence and good will and secure a compliance 
with the requirements of good citizenship. But 
have these acts been reciprocated? Instead of 
growing better and more loyal under the Pres- 
ident's policy, they have grown worse and more 
disloyal. Instead of accepting in good faith the 
results of the war, they openly declare that they 
are only subdued for the time being, and they 
will now rely on their influence inside the or- 
ganization of the Government to accomplish 
what they have failed to do outside by the bul- 
let. Their policy is to render it so uncomfort- 
able and hazardous for loyal men to live among 
them as to compel them to leave. Many hun- 
dreds of northern men who have made invest- 
ments and attempted to make themselves homes 
in these States have been driven away. Others 
have been murdered in cold l^lood as a warning 
to all northern men who should attempt to set- 
tle in the South. Officers charged with the 
execution of the laws have been intimidated by 
threats of violence, and brutally murdered for 
a faithful discharge of duty. 



In Kentucky the courts hold that officers and 
men who have been in the Union Army are 
personally responsible for arrests made and 
propei'ty taken during the war by order of their , 
superiors. Many have been imprisoned, and 
actions are now pending against thirty-five 
hundred more in pursuance of this ruling of 
the courts ; while officers and men who have 
been in the rebel army are by the same courts 
exempted from such liability because of their 
rights as belligerents. This is but foreshadow- 
ing what will take place in all the seceded States 
as soon as the military force shall be withdrawn. 

Governor Brownlow, of Tennessee, who did 
more, perhaps, than any other man to secure 
the nomination of Andrew Johnson at Balti- 
more, in a recent address said : 

"You may think it a little strange that I give such 
counsel. I do it because if General Thomas were to 
take away his soldiers and i^uU up stakes and leave 
here, you would not be allowed to occupy this school- 
room a week; and if General Thomas and his mil- 
itary forces were to go away and leave us, this Legis- 
lature, at the head of which I am placed, would bo 
broken up by a mob in forty-eight hours." 

On the 8th of March, 1866, he wrote to a 
member of this House a letter, from which I 
make some extracts. He says : 

"Since pardons have been so multiplied, and no 
man has been punished, they have everywhere be- 
come impudent and defiant, until in most counties in 
Middle and WestTeunessee it is disreputable to have 
been a Union man, or, as a southern man, to have 
served in the Union Army— and matters are growing 
worse— the reconstructed traitors openly cursing loyal 
men, and threatening them with shooting or hang- 
ing; boasting that they have the President on their 
side, while we all feel that the President's policy is 
ruinous to us." ****** * 

" Every rebel in all this country, every McClellan 
man, and every ex-guerrilla chief, are loud and en- 
thusiastic in praise of the President. The men who 
but a few months since were cursing him for an ab- 
olitionist and traitor, and wishing him executed, are 
now for executing all who dare oppose his policy 'or 
even doubt its success. 

"There is twice the amount of bitterness and intol- 
erance in the South to-day toward the Union and 
everything northern that there was at the time of 
Lee's surrender. Abuse of Union men, of the radical 
majority in Congress, and self-assumed superiority on 
the part of the southern chivalry have arisen to such 
a height that loyal men cannot travel on a steamboat 
or in a railroad car without being insulted. As it was 
during the war. so it is now; all concessions from the 
North or from the majority in Congress are regarded 
as evidences of fear. All the old rebel presses of 18G1 
and many new ones are in full blast, threatening Con- 
gress and the North with ultimate vengeance and 
boasting of southern prowess. The most popularmen 
in the largestportionof Tennessee to-day arc the men 
most distinguished for their hostility to the North 
and what they are pleased to term the radical Con- 
gress, and they are the class of men select i^d to fill 
oifices, as the late county elections show .The same 
is true of the entire South, only to a greater extent. 
********** 

"Why, sir, many of them are expecting the Presi- 
dent to disperse Congress with the bayonet, as Crom- 
well dispersed the Long Parliament. The southern 
breast is being rapidly fired to deeds of valor; and all 
this, and more, as I believe, has been caused by the 
mistakes of the President. His i)lan of trustingrebcls 
with their State governments has had an ettect ex- 
actly the opposite of what he intended. It has ruined 
the prospects of the Union men, and they feel that 
there is no safety for them unless Congress shall choose 
to protect them. Even three days ago General Thomas 
had to send troops into Marshall county, some sixty 
miles distant, to protect loyal men and frecdmen who 
were fleeing for safety and coming to the city." 

North Carolina has been regarded one of the 
most loyal of the rebellious States ; but, judg- 



<) = 

V*; ingfrora the following from the Raleigh Staud- 
i ard, this State, too, is following her sisters in 
* rebellion in the work of rewarding rebels and 
<S punishing loyal men : 

["^^ " Tho town of Wilmiugton, in this State, has re- 
cently passed by popular election from tho hands of 
loyal Union men into the hands of original secession- 
ists and lattcr-diiy war men. Tho same is true as to 
tho countyeouitof Now Hanover, under tho appoint- 
ment of mas'istrates made by the Legislature. It is 
considered disrppntnV>li' in Wilmington to bo an out- 
spoken unconditional Union man. General Robert 
Ransom, hitely of tho confederate scrvico, has been 
chosen marshal of the town, with a salary of $2,000. 
General R. is, we presume, still unpardoned." 

Colonel Stokes, one of the true men elected 
to this House from Tennessee, in a recent 
speech said : 

" We know that admission now would destroy tho 
Union element of the States. Congress isdoing right 
in holding them back. When the rebel armies first 
surrendered, there was everywhere a disposition to- 
ward loyalty; but I stand hero to-night to say that 
there is now a feeling as bitter toward the Union men 
of the South as there was in IHGO-Cil. And the facts 
have proved that Congress, in its cool and deliberato 
treatment of the matter, deserves the thanks of all 
Union men, in giving an opportunity for these rebels 
to show their hands. Time will show that Congress 
was right." 

This view of the spirit of the South is con- 
firmed by tho necessity which prompted Gen- 
eral Grant to issue an order, on the 12th of 
January last, directing the military power to 
protect the loyal citizens of the rebellious States 
from the prejudice and violence of their rebel 
neighbors, and further to protect colored per- 
sons from prosecutions charged with offenses 
for which w-hite persons are not prosecuted or 
punished in the same manner and degree. 

All the accounts we receive from loyal sources, 
from Grant, from Schurz, from the agents of 
the Freedmeu's Bureau, from every loyal man 
from the North who has visited the South, from 
every truly loyal man in the South, by peti- 
tions and entreaties, all agree that, if the mili- 
tary force should be removed, it would be 
impossible for Union men, black or white, to 
remain there. And yet the reconstructed Gov- 
ernor of Mississippi says they (the Union sol- 
diers ) are not needed, that they are ' • a disturb- 
ing element, a nuisance, and a blighting curse. ' ' 

While important service in the rebellion is a 
sure passport to political and social position 
and distinction, a systematic effort is made to 
brand every man with disgrace who has been 
true to the Government, thus openly and de- 
fiantly rewarding treason and punishing loy- 
alty. It is a fact, to which I challenge con- 
tradiction, that in spite of all the caution, 
expostulations, arguments, and demands of the 
President in regard to the election of loyal men 
in tlie States he is attempting to reconstruct, 
with every consideration of policy urging them 
to a decent regard, for the time being at least, 
to the loyal sentiments of the country, the men 
who have been the most active and efficient in 
the rebellion are the most popular at the polls, 
and receive the largest vote. It is very true 
that some good men, under the pressure of 
circumstances, have been elected. A few such 
have been sent here as claimants of seats in this 
House — men who would honor the position they 
claim, and with whom we should all be most 



happy to be associated a.s members of this Con- 
gress, could we feel that they had a loyal con- 
stituency, able to maintain a loyal government. 

In many instances the disloyalty of the per- 
sons voting, or the jjcrsons elected, lias been 
so notorious that the President has been com- 
pelled to declare the election void, and with- 
hold the certificate of election, or forbid tlieir 
entering upon the duties of the office. The 
Secretary of the Treasury and the Postmaster 
General both declare that they are unal;le to 
find loyal men enough in those States, who 
are willing to take the prescribed oath, to fill 
the offices under their Departments, and we 
are called upon to repeal or modify the oath 
so as to allow these men, just out of the re- 
bellion, to accept some of the most responsible 
and', lucrative offices under the same Govern- 
ment they have been laboring for four long 
years to destroy. To a proposition so flagrantly 
wrong and perilous I will not consent by my 
vote. If there are not loyal men enough in 
the South who have been true to the Union to 
fill these offices, I would appoint some of the 
heroes of the war, and bid them take part ia 
the administration of the government in the 
States they have saved by their valor. 

Major General Terry, in an order issued at 
Richmond,Virginia, January 24, 18G6, referring 
to a statute passed at the present session of the 
Legislature of Virginia entitled "A bill provid- 
ing for the punishment of vagrants," says: 

"The ultimate effect of thestatute will be to reduce 
the frecdmen to a, condition of servitude worse than 
that from which they have been emancipated — a con- 
dition which will be slavery in all but its name." 

A law recently passed by the Louisiana Le- 
gislature provides that any one who shall feed, 
harbor, or secrete any person who shall leave 
his employer without his consent shall be liable 
to a fine or imprisonment; thus reviving, as 
far as possible, the principles of the old slave 
code. These facts might be multiplied indefi- 
nitely, but enough have been presented to show 
that, while these people accept the fact of 
emancipation, they believe the principle is 
wrong, and intend to make the condition of 
the freedmen as near that of slavery as possi- 
ble. There are, to be sure, very many good 
and loyal men in the South, and had they the 
control of the States all would be well ; but 
the unwelcome truth is the rebels are in the 
ascendency. Loyalty is the exception and dis- 
loyalty the rule. 

Governor Cox, of Ohio, in his report of the 
President's conversation on the 21st of Febru- 
ary last makes him speak of what he is doing 
in those States for the purpose of "stimulating 
loyalty" no less than six times in that short 
conversation. I fear that too much of the lit- 
tle loyalty we see manifested by these men is of 
the "stimulated" kind; that it is a sickly plant 
at most, and will die out as soon as the stimu- 
lation shall cease. I have no confidence in 
this " stimulating" business. My own obser- 
vation proves to my mind that, though you may 
get a little more out of a subject for a day by 
administering stimulants, in the end he will 
sink just as much below his natural condition 
as he has been raised above it. The facts in 



this case show that the President's southern 
patient has been stimulated too long, that the 
medicine has ceased to have any effect, and he 
is rapidly sinking, and is now even lower than 
when the first dose was administered. 

This is a sad picture, but it represents the 
spirit of the men who rule a large portion of 
the eleven seceded States to-day, and but for 
the presence of the military force would rule 
them all. Mr. Lincoln held that those States 
were " out of their practical relations with the 
Union," and no one will deny that this state 
of things exists at the present time. The great 
v/ork l)efore us is to restore these States to their 
' ' practical relations with the Union' ' at the ear- 
liest moment consistent with the future security, 
peace, and perpetuity of the Government. 

On whom devolves the duty of deciding when 
these States are in a condition to be repre- 
sented here? Not the Executive. No such power 
has ever been delegated to him. Not the House 
of Representatives or the Senate acting inde- 
pendent of each other, butthelaw-makingpower 
of the Government alone is competent to per- 
form this important duty. In confirmation of 
this view of the subject I add the express dec- 
larations of the President himself, through the 
Secretary of State. On July 24, 1865, Mr. Sew- 
ard telegraphed to the "provisional governor" 
of Mississippi: 

"The government of the State will be provisional 
onlj-. until the civilauthorities shall be restored with 
the approval of Congress." 

So, on September 12, 1805, he wrote to Gov- 
ernor Marvin, of Florida: 

"It must, however, be distinctly understood that 
tho restoration to which your proclamation refers 
will be subject to the decision of Congress." 

Thus it is seen that, as late as September, 
18G5, both these distinguished men agreed with 
the majority of Congress that the readmission 
of these States is to be subject to " the approval 
of Congress." 

In accordance with the President's and Mr. 
Seward's original plan, I hold that it is the 
duty of Con^gress to take the whole subject into 
consideration, as it is now doing, and decide 
just what guarantees it is absolutely necessary 
to require to secure equal and exact justice to 
all the citizens, and to prevent the recurrence 
of another rebellion in the future. This should 
be secured by such constitutional amendments 
as cannot fail to accomplish the object; and, 
on the ratification of these amendments by a 
vfite of the people of these States, as a pledge 
of their sincerity and loyalty, I would allow 
them to be represented in Congress on an 
equal footing with the other States. 

I venture to suggest some of the guarantees 
which, in my judgment, would best secure the 
well-being and mutual interest both of the North 
and South. 

1. The leading intelligent traitors who know- 
ingly and willingly went into the rebellion — 
those denominated by President Johnson "con- 
scious traitors" — should be deprived of all 
political rights for the present at least, and 
until they shall have brought forth fruits meet 
for repentance, or the loyal sentiment of the 
States shall have become so strong as to render 



them powerless for evil. Aside from a few 
leaders, who by their official position or infernal 
conduct have been the representatives of trea- 
son, on whose heads should be visited the 
extreme penalty of a violated law as a vindi- 
cation of the supremacy of law and order, and 
a notice to coming generations that henceforth 
"treason is a crime to be punished and made 
odious," I would allow them to live in the 
country if the}' desire, and would heap coals 
of fire on their heads by securing to them full 
and complete protection of their persons, and 
the enjoyment of the fruits of their labor. 
This is all they expected when they laid down 
their arms; and, it appears to me, is all a rebel. 
possessed of common decency would ask. 
Even Lucifer himself never had the presump- 
tion to insult the Almighty by going back after 
the overthrow of his rebellion and asking to 
be permitted to assist in the administration of 
the government he attempted to destroy, much 
less to claim the privilege as a right. There is 
no evidence that these men love the old Union 
any better now than when they were openly 
fighting against it. Their arms have been 
broken, but they are defiant still. They may 
accept the fact of emancipation, but they still 
believe that slavery is the best condition for the 
colored race, and it is but reasonable to sup- 
pose that as far as possible this idea would, if 
they were allowed to govern, be embodied in 
law, and carried out in their intercourse with 
the ''colored people. If I believed slavery to 
be right, and the relation of master and slave 
the best condition for both Avhites and blacks, 
I should use my influence to make the condi- 
tion of the colored population as near that of 
slavery as possible, and if I disliked the form 
of Government under which I live as those 
men professed to hate the old Union, I should 
not cease my efforts to supplant the hated Gov- 
ernment and establish one more in accordance 
with my own idea. Nothing less than this 
could be expected of me. Is it reasonable to 
suppose that the recent rebels would do less? 
Do not tho acts of the Legislatures of many of 
these States just quoted answer the question 
with alarming significance? 

The disloyal leaders who vacated their seats 
in this Hall in 1861, after having spent four 
years in an infamous attempt to destroy the 
Union by force of arms, and in vilifying the 
Constitution of our fathers without so much as, 
professing to love the "old Government" any 
better than when they were fighting against it, 
with the blood of four hundred thousand mur- 
dered patriots still unwashed from their hands, 
ask to come back into the Halls of Congress ; 
and they and some others in high and low places 
seem to think it very strange that they are not 
permitted at once to become the guardians of 
the institutions they so abhor. Before such 
cool affrontery Satan's rebellion in heaven 
falls into insignificance. They have been here 
before and basely violated their oaths and took 
advantage of their official position to overthrow 
the Constitution and Government they had 
sworn to protect. They are no better now, and 
we should be false to our high trust to allow 



these men to come back again to rcnact the 
scenes of 18G1. 

Suppose in this contest the rebels had suc- 
ccfdcd, the old Government been overthrown, 
and the confederate government, based onthe 
divinity of shivery and the right of secession, 
had become the government of this nation, what 
would have become of us here? If we had been 
permitted to live, we might have thought our- 
selves fortunate. But suppose the members 
of this Congress to have been elected to the 
Congress of the new government. Our Dem- 
ocratic friends on the other side, who have 
always sympathized with the rebels in their 
treason and now regard them truly loyal, would 
find themselves very much at home, and might 
very properly cooperate with the confederate 
statesmen and ex rebel generals in the work of 
such a Congress. But an nncondltional Union 
man who hates slavery and treason and loves 
liberty could only go there for the; purpose of 
molding the Government in accordance withhis 
own views. Just so will it be with these ex- 
rebels if we admit them to legislate for a Gov- 
ernment for which they have no sympathy. _ It 
will be like taking to our bosoms and warming 
into life the scorpion whose sting is death. If 
we should err in this matter and keep the States 
in question out (or in the position they volun- 
tarily assumed) a little longer than is absolutely 
necessary, the error can be corrected ; but if 
they are admitted with treason in the hearts 
of the governing classes of the people the evil 
may be irreparable. 

In this view of our duty in regard to the treat- 
ment of leading traitors I utter no new declara- 
tions. These are the settled convictions of a 
large portion of the Union men of the country. 
They were the principles boldly advocated by 
President Johnson in his better days, before his 
head became giddy with power, and southern 
rebels and northern copperheads led him cap- 
tive at their will. In the Senate of the United 
States, March 2, 1861, he said: 

"Show mc who has been engaged in these conspir- 
acies, who has tired upon our flag, who has given in- 
•structions to take our torts and custom-houses and 
arsenals and dock-yards, and I will show you a trai- 
tor. AVerc 1 President of the United States I would 
do .asThomas Jcll'crsondid, in 1806, with Aaron Burr. 
I would have them arrested, and, if convicted within 
the meaning and scope of the Constitution, by the 
eternal God I would execute them." 

In a speech made in Nashville, Tennessee, 
June !), 1864, indicating his acceptance of the 
nomination made at the Baltimore convention, 
two days before, he said: 

"Treason must be made odious and traitors must 
be punished and impoverished. Their groat i)lanta- 
tioiis must be seized, and divided into stnall farms, 
aud sold to honest, industrious men. The day for 
protecting the lauds and negroes of these authors of 
rebellion is past. It is high time it was." 

***** ***** 

" But in calling a convention to restore the State, 
who shall restore and reestablish it? Shall the man 
who gave his iiiflucnee and his means to destroy the 
Government ? Is he to participate in the great work 
of reorganization? Shall he who brought this misery 
upon tlie State be permitted to control its destinies? 
if this be so, then all this precious hloodof our brave 
soldiers and officers so freely pcnired out will have 
boon wantonly spilled. All the glorious victories won 
by our noble armies will go for naught, and all the 
battle-fields which have been sown with dead heroes 



during the rebellion will have been made memorable 
in vain." 

I quote further froui the same speech in proof 
of my statement : 

" Why all this carnage and devastation? It was 
that treason might be put down and traitors punished. 
Therefore 1 say that traitors should take a back seat 
in the work of restoration. I say that liie traitor has 
ceased to be a citizen, and in joining the rf'bcllion 
has become a public enemy, lie forfeited his right 
to \ote with loyal men when he renounced his citi- 
zenship and sought to destroy our Government. Wo 
say to the most honest and industrious foreigner who 
comes from England or Germany to dwell among us, 
and to add to the wealth of the country, ' Before you 
can be a citizen you must stay here for five years.' 
if wc are so cautious about foreigners, who volun- 
tarily renounce tlieir homes to live with us, what 
should we say to the traitor, who, although born and 
reared among us, has raised a. i)urrieidal hand against 
the Government wiiicii always protected him? My 
judgment is that ho should be subjected to a severe 
ordeal before ho is restored to citizenship. A fellow 
who takes the oath merely to save his property, and 
denies the validity of tiic oath, is a perjured man, 
anil not to be trusted. Before these repenting rebels 
can be trusted, let them bring forth the fruits of re- 
pentance. He who helped to make all these widows 
and orphans, who draped the streets of Nashville in 
mourning, should suffer for his great crime." 

These are precjisely the doctrines I advocate 
to-day, and, in the name of the.people I repre- 
sent, I call upon the President to cooperate with 
Congress in giving them practical application. 

2. All the civil and political rights belonging 
to citizenship, including the right of suffrage, 
should be guarantied to all loyal citizens, irre- 
spective of race or color. The loyal men, white 
and black, who have always loved the old flag 
and were true to it in the darkest hours, can 
now be trusted to aid in the administration of 
the Government. 

Right here it is objected that by placing the 
colored people on an equality before the law with 
the whites you will bring about a war of races. 
And this cry has been heard from the lowest 
groggery in the land up through all the grades of 
society to the AVhite House. Do not these peo- 
ple understand.that the measures they propose 
are the only measures that can possibly bring 
about a war of races in this country? What cre- 
ates a war of races? It is the application of one 
law to one race and another to another race in 
the same community. It is granting privileges 
to one race which you withhold from the other, 
thus engenderingjealousy, hatred, revenge, and 
terminating in open hostility. I admit that one 
hundred and fifty thousand men, trained to war, 
representing four or five million people stung 
to madness by the refusal of the Government 
to recognize their manhood, would be a dan- 
gerous element in any Government. But give 
the colored man the common rights that belong 
to man, give him an equal opportunity with the 
whites, subject him to the same laws, award to 
him the privileges you claim for yourself, bid 
him God speed in his efforts to raise himself 
from his degraded condition, and awar of races 
will be impossible. 

Our fathers gave the right of suffrage to free 
colored men in nearly all the States in the 
Union, and without any evil results. The idea 
that the black man has no rights that white men 
are bound to respect is of modern invention. 

We have paid dearly for our refusal to do 



6 



justice to the colored race. Had we emanci- 
pated and enfranchised the colored men when 
Mr. Seward declared the "irrepressible con- 
flict," secession would have been impossible. 
These four years of blood and anguish have 
been the fearful punishment for our refusal to 
obey the demands of God's eternal justice. 
The sins of the fathers as well as our own have 
fallen upon us with terrible consequences, and 
are to be visited upon coming generations in 
the shape of an enormous debt. And now, 
though v.'e have given the colored man — what 
we had no right to withhold from him — his lib- 
erty, if we fail to give him the common rights 
of citizens we may depend on still further 
judgments from Him who made the black men 
black, and the white men white, and stamped 
upon ))oth His own image. 

When Mr. Lincoln, on the 1st day of Janu- 
ary, 18G3, proclaimed liberty to the bondmen, 
freedom to a race in slavery, and invoked 
upon the act "the blessing of God and the 
considerate judgment of mankind," he meant 
something more than the mere form of free- 
dom. That act was intended^ to carry with it 
the common rights of manhood. And when 
we called on the black men to assist in saving 
our imperiled country, we did not intend to 
avail ourselves of his services on the field of 
danger and then abandon him to the tender 
mercies of his former master, made doubly 
malignant because of his efficient aid to the 
Union cause. Unless we protect him in his 
civil rights his liberty is but a solemn mockery. 
The colored man, l)y laillying to the standard of 
a nation which had given him no rights except 
those of a slave, and bearing aloft our flag in the 
thickest of the fight, has earned his rights to all 
the privileges of a man. And if we deny him 
those privileges a God of justice will frown upon 
us, and mankind will curse us for our perfidy. 

The practical question presented is, whether 
we will restore the government of the States 
recently in rebellion to the loyal or disloyal 
men. Will you trust the men who were hunted 
down by dogs, j^hindered of their property, 
imprisoned in loathsome dungeons, compelled 
to see their wives and little ones cruelly treated, 
exiled from their homes, driven to the mount- 
ains, to caves, and rocks, compelled to see their 
loyal associates shot down like dogs, dragged 
to the scaffold and hung as felons, and sub- 
jected to all the outrages and indignities that 
devils could invent, and still stood true to the 
old flag, faithful among the faithless, or the 
men who were the authors and active perpe- 
trators of all these cruelties? Shall we give 
heed to the entreaties of the men who have 
always been true and never faltered, and who 
now implore us to protect them from the rage 
of their rebel neighbors, or the recent traitors 
in arms who come to us with their hands still 
reeking with the blood of our murdered broth- 
ers, and, without any evidence of sorrow for 
what they have done, or the least signs of re- 
gret for their stupendous wickedness, demand 
an opportunity to accomplish by the ballot and 
other civil influences what they have failed to 
do bv the sword? 



Some say if you give the ballot to the negro 
his old master will control it. So when we 
talked about putting them in the Army it was 
said they would turn against us and fight for 
their old masters ; but when were soldiers truer 
than they? Go ask at Port Hudson, at Milli- 
ken's Bend, and Fort Wagner, where their 
spirits went up from their black bodies to their 
God in defense of liberty, the Constitution, 
and the Union, and tell me whether these men 
can be depended on. The men who will peril 
their lives on the field of battle in defense of 
our Constitution will vote for it if you will 
give them an opportunity. 

It is objected that the colored people are too 
ignorant to be intrusted with the ballot, but it 
is an objection that applies only to color. The 
most ignorant foreigner that ever landed from 
an emigrant ship, the most benighted poor 
white in all the South, is deemed a safe depos- 
itary of this important ti'ust, providing he has 
no shade of African blood in his veins. Scarcely 
a black man can be found in the whole country 
who was so ignorant that he did not know and 
choose the right side during the war, while his 
intelligent master was generally on the wrong 
side. I would sooner trust a loyal black man 
with the ballot than a disloyal white man. The 
argument that would exclude a poor or igno- 
rant colored man from the right to vote would 
also exclude the poor or ignorant white man. 
The more this question is discussed the stronger 
are the convictions of the people ' ' that the only 
way to secure and perpetuate our Government 
in its purity is to confer upon all the races of 
men equal rights, or such opportunities as will 
prepare them for the enjoyment of equal rights. ' ' 
And the time is not far distant when the peo- 
ple of this country will acquiesce in this princi- 
ple as fully as they now do in the constitutional 
amendment abolishing slavery, which our Dem- 
ocratic friends so strenuously opposed. 

In these views I also find myself sustained 
by the declarations of the President. In his 
Nashville speech, before referred to, he said: 

"If there be but five thousand men in Tennessee 
loyal to the Constitution, loyal to freedom, loyal to 
justice, these true and faithful men should conti'ol the 
woi-k of reorganization and reformation absolutely." 

In August, 1865, the President recommended 
to Governor Sharkey, of Mississippi, the exten- 
sion of the franchise '*to all persons of color who 
can read the Constitution of the United States 
in English and write their names, and to all per- 
sons of color who own real estate valued at not 
less than S-50 and pay taxes thereon." 

In October last the President was in favor of 
negro suffrage. He then said to Major Stearns : 

"My position here is different from what it would 
be if I were in Tennessee. There I should try to 
introduce negro suifrage gradually: first, those who 
had served in the Army; those who could read and 
write; and perhaps a property qualification for oth- 
ers, say $200 or S250." 

In October, 1804, just before his election, 
Andrew Johnson addressed a gathering of 
colored people in Nashville, and said : 

"I, Andrew Johnson, hereby proclaim liberty, full, 
broad, unconditional liberty, to every man in Ten- 
nessee. I will be your Moses, and lead you through 
the Red Sea of struggle and servitude to a future of 
liberty and peace. Rebellion and slavery shall no 



more pollute otir State. Loyal men, whether white 
or black, shall govern the State." 

3. We sliould Ibrevcr prohil)it the payment 
of tlic conlcderate iind State debts contracted 
in aid of the rchelluni, and prohibit the nation 
and the States Ironi makinjr payment for eman- 
cipated slaves. Already the less cautious reb- 
els are talking about being able, by the aid of 
northern Democrats, when they shall be rep- 
resented in Congress, to compel the General 
Government to assume their debt or repudiate 
the whole. James L. Orr, the so-called Gov- 
ernor of South Carolina, says : 

" 1 therefore cherish the hope tliat Congress will, as 
soon as the pulilio debt is provided for, make some 
just and equitable ananscincnt to make the citizens 
of the iSouth some ciiiniK'iisiition for the slaves man- 
umitted by the United States authorities." 

Hon. John Covode, in his account of an inter- 
view with Governor Wells, of Louisiana, says : 

" He began to make domands with regard to what 
Government should do. lie said that Government 
must pay for slaves that had been emancipated, for 
it had taken or destroyed proporty enough for that 
purpose." 

I'his is the jirogramme now shadowed forth, 
and which, if not put to rest forever, will be a 
source of inhnite trouble to us hereafter. We 
owe it to the loyal tax-payers North and South 
to provide that they shall not be taxed to pay 
the expenses of a war to destroy the nation's 
life : and we owe it to the holders of our national 
securities, as well as our own credit and finan- 
cial stability, to provide by amendment to the 
fundamental law that none of these pretended 
claims shall ever be j^aid. 

4. The doctrine of secession should be repu- 
diated and branded with everlasting infamy. 
This proposition is too plain to need argument 
now. The experience of the last four years, 
the graves of four hundred thousand fallen 
heroes, the emblems of mourning all over the 
country, all speak in thunder tones, demand- 
ing that this doctrine hereafter shall find no 
place among the possibilities of the country. 

The Union members of Congress earnestly 
desire to avoid any conflict with the President. 
They will have none except so far as he repu- 
diates the principles wdilch gave him the elec- 
tion in 18(j4. They ask nothing that the prin- 
ciples heretofore expressed by him , and enforced 
in his administration of affairs in the States 
recently in rebellion, do not absolutely justify 
and require. 

But it is objected that our plan contemplates 
amendments to the Constitution, and the Pres- 
ident says, "Amendments to the Constitution 
ought not to be so fret]uent that their effect 
would be that it would lose all its prestige and 
dignity." The President lost sight of this 
idea when, in the Senate of the United States 
in December, liSljO, he proposed no less than 
nine amendments to the Constitution in one 
day. He repudiated this idea when speaking 
for the votes of the American people in Nash- 
ville soon after his nomination for Vice Pres- 
ident. He said : 

" T liold. with tletTerson, that Government was made 
for the convenience of man, and not man fortJovern- 
uicnt. The laws and constitutions were designed as 
instruments to promote iiis welfare. And hence, from 
this principle, I conclude that Governments can and 



ought to be charged and amended to conform to the 
wants, to the rcciuiroments, and progress of the peo- 
ple and the enlightened spirit of the age." 

* * * * * * * * * * 

"And let me say thnt now is the time to secure 
these fundamental ijrinciplis, while the hinil is rent 
with anarchy and upheaves with the throes of a 
mighty revolution. While society is in this disor- 
dered state, and we are seeking security, let us fix 
the foundations of the Government on principles of 
eternal justice which will endure for all time." 

And now, in 186G, the loyal people of the 
country say amen, and call upon the author to 
coijpcrate with their representatives in securing 
sucn amendments as the changed condition ot 
things demand ; and to conform "to the re- 
quirements and progr(!SS of the peoi)le and 
enlightened spirit of the age," and to " fix the 
foundation of the Government on principles of 
eternal justice which will endure for all time." 

Because of the enunciation of such princi- 
ples as I have cpioted, and others correspond- 
ing thereto, the true men of this country rallied 
around xYndrew Johnson, and triumphantly 
elected him to the second office within their 
gift. 

I have quoted to some extent the declara- 
tions of the President to show that when a candi- 
date for the suffrages of the people, and even 
later, he favored every proposition that the 
majority of Congress desire to adopt. If he 
will now, in his high position, carry out the 
principles he then avowed, a confiding people 
will rally around him and hold up his hands 
in the great work, and future generations will 
hold his name in grateful remembrance. Fail- 
ing to do this, the terrible judgment of jjopu- 
lar condemnation awaits him. 

Mr. Speaker, I am no alarmist. I believe in 
a glorious future for this country, but on the 
express condition that we prove ourselves 
deserving such a future. The day of our 
peril is not yet past. Already in the North a 
large, and in some States a powerful, party 
who from the beginning of the war have sym- 
pathized more with the rebellion than the Gov- 
ernment, are coming forward to meet their 
southern friends, and over the graves — not yet 
covered with the verdure of a single season — 
of the nation's fallen heroes, whom one has 
branded as murderers and the other has slain, 
they propose to shake hands, and pledge them- 
selves to place this Government in the hands 
of those who but yesterday were striving to 
destroy it, and threaten revolution if their 
demands are tiot acceded to; and, "tell it not 
in Gath," they claim a President elected by 
lo3'al votes to cooperate with them. Already a 
Senator rises in his place and declares that 
•*it is the duty of the President to ascertain 
who constitute the two Houses of Congress," 
and calls upon him to "recognize the Opposi- 
tion here and the southern members as a ma- 
jority of the Senate." Another Senator, at a 
recent meeting in this city, is reported to have 
said that "he believed to-day that a revolution 
is pending, and President Johnson would have 
better work for southern men than hanging 
them. He believed to-day that when Jeif. 
Davis' left the Senate he was a better Union 
man than Abraham Lincoln. This he would 



8 



fiay on the floor in Congress before he got 
through." 

The New York World suggests that the 
''present national Legislature should be put 
down by force," and the Constitutional Union 
talks about the '• second ad/ent of Cromwell 
of England, or of Xapoleon of France :" while 
the Macon Telegraph echoes back from Geor- 
gia the sentiment of its northern allies, and 
declares that "the ballot-box is too slow a 
remedy for existing grievances," and adds: 

"Let the President put down the rebellion in Con- 
gress and appeal to the ballot-box to sustain that." 

And continuing further in the same strain, it 
says : 

"AVe prefer peaceable means; but, these failing, 
the President should issue his proclamation declar- 
ing the Union fully restored, and inviting the south- 
ern members of Congress to enter the Capitol and 
take their seats. If refused admittance, a regiment 
of United States troops should- be sent to put the 
southern members in their places." 

The proclamation has been issued, but the 
southern members and the regiment of United 
States troops have not yet appeared. 

The Chicago Times declares that it is the 
duty of the President to command the arrest 
of Stevens, Phillips, and Sumner, and their 
confederates in Congress and all over the coun- 
try, for the crime of treason, and talks about 
the duty of the President to dissolve Congress 
by military joower. 

C. C. Burr, a Democratic orator and writer, in 
his paper, the Old Guard, in the issue of Janu- 
ary, 18t)G, in eulogizing General R. E. Lee, says : 

"It is a question which impartial and inexorable 
history will have to settle vvhether a success on his 
part would not have proved a benefit to his country." 

He further says : 

"When every Democratic editor will speak out his 
real thoughts and say boldly and defiantly that he 
believes men like General Robert E. Lee to be patri- 
ots, and men like Stanton and Seward to be traitors, 
there will be more honest men in the land than there 
are now, and there will be better hope for liberty — 
tor our country's lasting peace and honor." 

Vv'^hen I remember that those "Democratic 
editors" have never uttered a word in condem- 
nation of the action of General Lee from the 
time he ignominiously betrayed the confidence 
of General Scott and the country, and basely 
drew his sword against the Government on 
whose patronage he had lived, to the present 
time, and that they have never ceased to apply 
the vilest epithets to the other two distin- 
guished men named, I cannot avoid the con- 
viction that Mr. Burr speaks what he knows 
on this subject. 

For myself, standing. in my place in the 
American Congress, representing a people who 
have freely poured out their treasure and their 
blood that this nation might live, and speaking 
for thousands of homes made desolate by the 
war, with the dust of the bravest and best of 
my constituents sleeping in patriots' graves, 
almost within sound of my voice, I am ready 
to swear, by all the sanctity of this free-will 
offering, that I will never consent, by my vote, 
that the Government of this country shall be 



taken from the loyal citizens who have saved 
it by their blood and given to traitors. Could 
I be so false and base as to do so, I should 
expect the gory dead to rise up in judgment 
against me. 

We have emerged from the greatest military 
struggle on record, and now a moral contest 
has commenced. Already we have had seem- 
ing defeat. Already our enemies boast that 
our chosen leader is in sympathy with them 
and against us. God grant that the experience 
of the war may not be repeated ; and that we 
may not be sulyected to three years of political 
McClellanism and Chickahominy anguish, be- 
fore a Grant shall be found to lead us on to 
victory. 

There is a grandeur in the contest we are 
entering amounting to the sublime. Our peo- 
ple have stood unawed and invincible in the 
midst of the thunder and smoke of terrible 
battle, when carnage and death held high car- 
nival. It remains for us to show to the nations 
of the earth that we can stand erect in this 
moral conflict, and, with hearts strong and 
undaunted, meet every responsibility incident 
to the great work which devolves upon us. The 
result of this conflict is not doubtful. We may 
not now be worthy to enter the promised land 
of peace and prosperity which lies before us. 
Months and years even of severe conflict may 
intervene, but we shall surely win at last. 
While God sits on His throne, right and justice 
are indestructible. Men may attempt to raise 
their puny arms and fight against His purposes, 
but they will be paralyzed. The man who 
expects to turn the Union jiarty of this country 
from its convictions of duty by executive influ- 
ence, will soon find he has mistaken the men 
who compose it. They have written their prin- 
ciples in letters of blood and will not abandon 
them. The equal rights of all men before the 
law in this country is foreordained of God ; 
and he who puts himself in the way of its accom- 
plishment will find that the terrible "ground- 
swell of popular judgment," referred to by the 
President in his speech of theli2d of February, 
will open a chasm beneath his feet in which he 
will be buried out of sight. 

While the nation to-day, in her tears and 
ghastly wounds, bows her head before Him who 
has given us the victory, she makes the sol- 
emn pledge that justice and equal rights to all 
her people shall be the rule of her conduct, 
and that every elem'ent which tends to injustice 
and oppression shall be removed from the ba- 
sis of the reconstructed Union, and that our 
glorious banner with every star restored, shin- 
ing forth with a brighter luster then ever be- 
fore, with liberty written in letters of living 
light on its ample folds wherever it may float, 
on land or sea, shall be the symbol, not merely 
of might and power, but of justice, and the 
highest civilization of human governments, in- 
spiring the great heart of universal humanity 
with better hopes, and prompting to nobler 
endeavor. 



Printc.] at the Co::srcscional Globe OflSce. 



